Comic Book / Disney Mouse and Duck Comics

The heroes of their universes reading about themselves.

When Walt Disney gave his cartoon star Mickey Mouse a spotlight in the animation world, the character's popularity rose and new opportunities arose for his company. Besides merchandising and endorsement, in 1930 Mickey was offered his own newspaper comic strip. That was the start of Disney's comic business, and over 80 years later, it's still around and publishing.

At first it started with just Mickey, but then other Disney characters and features began to have their own comic adaptations. When Donald Duck's popularity began to peak, he was inevitably given his own comic to star in. All sorts of Disney characters began to appear in the comics, and before long, two main comic continuities were defined.

Fans commonly refer to these two universes as the Mouse and Duck universes. Together, they form a neat Modular Franchise that has stood to this day.

The Mouse universe started out with the adventures of Mickey Mouse, hence the name. Over time, his friends and supporting characters came to star in comics of their own, but ultimately they're still a part of the Mouse universe. Besides Mickey, Goofy also has his own adventures in this universe, and the Mouse universe is home to famous villains like Peg-leg Pete and the Phantom Blot.

The Duck universe began with Donald Duck as the star. He has been partially eclipsed by Scrooge McDuck, but he has not completely lost his former status.

Overall, people tend to agree that the Duck universe is more popular than the Mouse universe. But since the comics are produced internationally — more than in the United States, in fact — whether Mickey or Donald is more popular depends on where you look. In Italy, for example, Mickey and Donald are equally wildly popular as Topolino and Paperino, or "little mouse" and "little duck" respectively; while in the Nordic countries, Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge reign supreme. However, both comic universes are thriving in the modern day, so fans of both the Mouse and Duck comics have reason to be happy.

The Duck and Mouse universes are set in Duckburg and Mouseton, respectively. It's often been depicted that the two towns are not far from each other on the map, and both exist in a fictional U.S. state named Calisota.

For the Mouse universe, see Mickey Mouse Comic Universe; for the Ducks, see Disney Ducks Comic Universe. This page is about the Modular Franchise the two form. Examples specific to Mice or Ducks should go on their respective pages, but if a work concerns both universes or its characters, it can go here.

Now has a character page, for those characters who are part of the franchise and sometimes appear in crossovers, but don't primarily belong to either Mouse or Duck universe, such as Chip 'n Dale, Br'er Rabbit and The Three Little Pigs.

---

Noteworthy stories that use the Mice and Ducks Verse:

• Millennium Orb Saga
• Ultraheroes
• Wizards of Mickey (A High Fantasy variant, at least)

Notable authors and artists:

• Ducks:
  • Carl Barks
  • Giorgio Cavazzano
  • Massimo Fecchi
  • Luciano Bottaro
  • Lars Jensen
  • Daan Jippes
  • Kari Korhonen
  • Victor "Vicar" Arriagada Rios
  • Don Rosa
  • Marco Rota
  • Romano Scarpa
  • Tony Strobl
  • Al Taliaferro
  • William Van Horn
  • Vic Lockman
  • Mark Evanier

• Mice:
  • Andrea "Casty" Castellan
  • Giorgio Cavazzano
  • Byron Erickson
  • César Ferioli
  • Floyd Gottfredson
  • Carol and Pat McGreal
  • Paul Murry
  • Romano Scarpa
  • Noel Van Horn
  • Bill Walsh
  • Bill Wright
  • Mark Evanier

---

The Mouse and Duck comics show examples of:

• Adaptation Expansion: Early stories of the Classic Disney Shorts, utilizing several characters introduced there but giving them a more coherent setting and introducing numerous new characters.
• An Aesop:
  • The underlying theme of the story "Paperinik il Diabolico Vendicatore" is that when you insult and humiliate someone continuously, one day he may retaliate and make you pay with interest (the days of Paperinik New Adventures are still away).
  • The science fiction saga "The Frontier Chronicles" drop a big one when Mickey flunks the Academy in spite of his excellent grades because he's too short to be a space pilot and goes into depression, leaving his friends and reducing himself to a hobo: O'Hara tricks him into getting a job as an archivist and see reports of multiple tragedies to show him that "There's people who has it much worse, yet they don't give up but continue fighting! Thus you, honor student of the Academy, have no right to just give up like that!"
  • Another from "The Frontier Chronicles", shown through Pete and Trudy's Heel–Face Revolving Door: you can't redeem those who don't want to be redeemed.
• Affectionate Parody: Frequent in italian stories.
  • The first example is "Mickey's Inferno", a parody of the famous The Divine Comedy, with Mickey play the role of Dante and Goofy the role of Virgilio. It uses also the same writing style with the comic dialogues and story written in terza rima (an intertwining three line scheme that Dante created himself) and cantos.
  • "Paperino Don Chisciotte"' that is both a parody and an ideal sequel of Don Quixote where an amnesiac Donald becomes Don Quixote of the Ducks after take Don Quixote's shield. And with Goofy as new Sancho.
  • "I Promessi Paperi", a parody of The Betrothed, a classic italian novel. Because of the adult themes from the original novel, the story is very different and more kid-friendly.
  • "Mickey and Minnie in Casablanca" of Casablanca. The entire comic is in black and white and remarkable for the Awesome Art of Cavazzano.
  • "Metopolis" is a two-part story and parody of the famous movie.
  • "Topo Maltese" is an homage to Corto Maltese for celebrate the comic series's 50th anniversary.
  • "La storia (in)finita" is a spoof of The Neverending Story, with Donald as Bastian and Mickey as Atreyu.
  • Subverted with "Topolinix e lo Scambio di Galli": it appears an obviously parody of the Asterix comics where Mickey and Pete play respectively the roles of Asterix and Obelix, but it's actually a stealth crossover with Asterix (who are often mentioned alongside Getafix, just without making names).
• Amusing Injuries: The Disney Comics are rife with this. Characters can be blown up, dropped from buildings, electrocuted, attacked by dogs, whatever, but actually sustain long-term injuries let alone killed? Not unless the plot specifically requires it, like the Phantom Blot's numerous Death Traps, which are played menacingly straight as being very lethal (of course, Mickey always escapes somehow). Even if someone (usually Donald) ends up as a Bandage Mummy at the end, he's perfectly fine by the next story.
• Bat Family Crossover: Not just between the Mouse and Duck parts of the franchise either. A lot of characters from the early Disney Animated Canon make cameos and appearances, either in their own stories or as guest stars in a Mouse or Duck story — or vice versa. Characters like Dumbo might show up on Gran'ma Duck's farm, Donald Duck might swap houses with The Three Little Pigs, Mickey Mouse might request the help of The Seven Dwarfs or Jiminy Cricket, and several Chip 'n Dale comics have co-starred Bambi and friends (both the young and the adult versions), as well as Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear as antagonists.
  • The Dutch story 70th Heaven (reprinted in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #715) presents what's probably the biggest crossover with these characters ever, when characters from dozens of Disney works — from Basil of Baker Street to Tinker Bell, from Willie the Giant to Pedro the Plane — show up for Donald's anniversary celebration.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Duck and Mouse comics in general have kept on overusing both the Bigfoot and the Yeti versions, much like the Stock Ness Monster.
• Darker and Edgier: The comics in general have gained a reputation on the Internet of being this, due to several complicated factors that boil down to Disney itself not really caring about the comics and thus individual authors getting away with seriously mature plots and jokes, such as here and here.
  • Due to Values Dissonance, Italian comics are even worse than the rest, regularly featuring such things as attempted murder, returning villains that had been abandoned due to being murderous Cold War spies or openly Nazi terrorists, Donald pointing a river to a rather annoying guy who asked him how he could help the world, and so on. Then we have Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine (where Mickey operates in a city more corrupt than Gotham) and Paperinik New Adventures (where a character is openly out to commit genocide-and is one of the heroes).
• Disguised in Drag: In one comic, Donald and Mickey needed to dress up in a wedding dress. Mickey suggests flipping a coin to decide who, but Donald insists on using one of this own coins (since Mickey always cheats). When Donald wins, he immediately goes to put on the dress since he was under the impression that Mickey meant the winner got to put on the pretty dress.
• Elseworld: Many; see for example Wizards of Mickey and Mickey and the Sleuth. The American translation of the Ultraheroes Mini Series is this as well, but it is an invention of the translator to justify the weirdness of the story. In Italy, where it was created, it's considered canon to the main universe. Most of the “Literary Parodies” are also assumed to be these, though others are in-universe plays the characters put on, or supposedly happened to identical ancestors of the modern-day cast.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Disney comics tend to be one big mishmash of this and the Sci-Fi Kitchen Sink, due to the comics having been written by numerous creators in multiple countries over many decades, with very little concern about continuity. In the world of Disney comics, All Myths Are True and any crazy sci-fi device imaginable can be whipped up in seconds by your local eccentric inventor (before, most likely, being destroyed or forgotten by the next issue).
• Fictional Province: The comics take place in the fictional state of Calisota (a portmanteau of California and Minnesota), which according to maps is located in what is really upstate California. This supposedly contains both Duckburg and Mouseton.
• Flowery Insults: Italian autors cannot use actual swearwords due the Moral Guardians, so they're prone to come up with memorable insults such as such as "You unworthy cercopithecus! The goddesses of grace and virtue were out shopping when you were born!" or "Disgusting display of plutocratic complacency!" (this one is especially well known for its appearance in Paperinik's debut story).
• Gamebooks: Several stories written in Italy followed this format. They were known as storie a bivi (crossroads stories) and they were published mainly in The '80s and The '90s.
• Geographic Flexibility: Duckburg and Mouseton both have the exact traits any story needs them to have — in fact, if one story requires the Mice and Ducks to live in the same town, they do. (This is most notable in Scandinavian\Brazilian stories and translations, where Mickey and friends are specifically stated to live in Duckburg, just a different part of the town.)
• Like Reality, Unless Noted: Everything relating to the Ducks and Mice is as it is and the rest of the world can be assumed to be like it is in real-life, give or take substituting the human population with animal people.
• Modular Franchise: All the characters inhabiting the same universe — but Donald Duck and his family primarily stay in the Disney Ducks Comic Universe, while Mickey Mouse and his friends have the Mickey Mouse Comic Universe, with the occasional crossover. There are also comic stories that are clearly part of the same universe but don't clearly take place with either Mice or Ducks — such as Chip and Dale's solo comics.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Very common in Italy comics. Pratically every famous VIP from Real Life has his avatar (with little edits of the name).
• Power Trio: Mickey, Donald and Goofy, when they get together.
• Premiseville: In the original tradition, the Duck cast and the Mouse cast all live in the same city. Whether they do or not in modern comics depends on the area of origin. American, Italian and French comics tend to assign the casts their own cities, while other-European and Brazilian comics tend to claim everyone lives in Duckburg. Older names for the joint-city are Toontown, used up until the 90s, and Disneyville, an obscurer name mentioned, for instance, in "Halloween Ghost".
• RPG Episode: In the comic story "The Black Orb", Donald, Goofy, and Mickey are playing a role-playing game as, respectively, a cowardly fighter, an inept mage, and a snarky thief to take back a magic orb from an evil wizard. The whole thing ends with Donald cracking under pressure during the climax and Mickey ultimately saving the day, but after Mickey and Goofy go home, Donald reimagines the ending with himself as the infallible, perfect hero who saves the day, and gets all the respect of his less-competent comrades.
• Schizo Continuity: Broad Strokes versions of most of the Walt Disney Classics exist within the comic universe^note  Don Rosa's personal views on continuity notwithstanding, of course, since he's a whole other problem., but don't expect to see any anthropomorphic characters in sequels and merchandise for these.
• Super Team: There's been two.
  • The Heroes Club was introduced in Brazil in 1986 and consists of, on Mouse side, Super Goof, Super Gilbert, Ultra O'Hara, and the Red Wasp and, on Duck side, the Duck Avenger, Super Daisy, the Red Bat, and the Purple Butterfly.
  • The Ultraheroes are an Italian invention from 2008 and consists of, on Mouse side, Super Goof, Eega Beeva and technically Mickey and, on Duck side, the Duck Avenger, Super Daisy, the Red Bat, Cloverleaf, and Iron Gus.
• Unreliable Canon: The extended Disney Mouse and Duck Comics universe is simply too vast in scope and number of authors to be entirely self-consistent; it's generally assumed that any story the reader's read are canon, in a Broad Strokes sort of way, if you really want to. (An exception to this are the comics of Don Rosa, as Rosa has personally taken the stance that only Barks's stories are canon to his. But, of course, his comics have been referenced by other authors whom he doesn't consider canon, so this exception is more cosmetic than anything else.) The great choice of stories and characters fans can choose from to create their own Head Canon version of Duckburg is generally considered one of Disney comics' greatest strengths by fans. And worry not, a few expert Fan Wank-crafters have tried at Universe Concordances that fit in (almost) everything, come hail or storm.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Mickey and Donald, whenever they get together, tend to be like this, constantly bickering and trying to one-up one another (though Mickey tends to come out on top, becoming more like The Ace to Donald's Chew Toy), but at the end of the day they're still good buddies.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Mouseton and Duckburg (and by extension St. Canard and Goosetown), which are a part of Calisota — which is another Springfield in its own right.
  • Some hints put Duckburg near Eureka, California, which would mean that Calisota is essentially one chunk of northern California (strangely similar to the current idea for the State of Jefferson).
  • The name Calisota itself is a portmanteau of California and Minnesota, so named for having summers as hot as California and winters as harsh as Minnesota.
• World of Mammals: (Land-based) mammals and birds, of course. Almost all humanoid animals in the Duck-Mouse setting belong to either category, with poultry, dogs, pigs, cats, and mice being the most prominent creatures, to the point it's feasible to list the exceptions. They are, incidentally, almost all from the animated side of the franchise and not so incidentally often mean. Old Man Ribbit in DuckTales, Toby Tortoise in the Classic Disney Shorts, and Mrs. Turtle and her son Shelby in House of Mouse are the simplest examples, followed by the intent for "The Darkwing Squad" from Darkwing Duck to have featured a Darkwing Dolphin, but his scenes were scrapped for time with the exception of one photo remaining. From the same show, Neptunia is worth a mention, but she's a mutated fish so she's the exception that proves the rule more than anything. Similarly, the Mickey Mouse comic "Invasion Of The Turtle People" features turtle people, but they're aliens so again a disqualifying exception. A valid example from the comics is Ribitta Hoppiticroak from the crossover The Search for the Zodiac Stone: An Epic Yarn of Mice and Ducks!.

---